#77: How to Teach Your Kid to be a Millionaire

All right, welcome everyone to the next episode of Aligned and Wealthy. We have an interview for today. I'm very excited for today's interview. I have a really cool guest. We've been chatting. We're actually like a few hours apart from each other. We're both in Georgia. So if you hear us drop a y'all, in there. Don't be surprised. So welcome in, Eileen Joy. We have Eileen Joy here. You are a money coach for moms, and I'm so excited to have you.

Thank you so much, Lindsey, for having me today. By the way, I'm originally from New York, so I only say you guys. Oh, there'll be no y'all coming.

It's so funny. I was writing an intro, like I have the speaking gig coming up, and it was like, you know, let us share an intro about yourself to share with our community. And so I plugged in at the very end of it that I was located in Georgia and I'm an advocate for y'all to be included in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. How funny is that?

You know, I had an in-depth conversation about this with my son. That's really funny. Really?

Did he ask what it meant?

Well, no, because he said y'all and I was like, what did you just say?

We are from Georgia, but we are not that Georgia.

Well, he was born here, so it's okay. I let it slide. Okay.

No, I try to tone it down. And it's so funny looking back at videos of myself whenever I first came into like the online marketing space, going back to those videos, the Southern accent was so strong. And, and looking back, I just, you know, okay, it's fine. Growth, growth, growth has happened here. So Yeah, growth is good. But anyways, Eileen, today is all about you and it's about empowering women to have the financial education to build wealth and to build lives of freedom for themselves. So please introduce yourself and let us know a little bit about you.

Okay, great. So I'm Eileen Joy, money coach for moms. Never in a million years did I ever dream that I would be where I am today. Teaching about money. And it all started because of my divorce. And so after my divorce, I was left with nothing. I was bankrupt and broke. And so during my divorce— actually, rewind— right before my divorce, I was interviewing attorneys and I was telling them, this is how much money I have. Is this going to be a problem? And not one of them said no. And I didn't have very much. I had a little bit of savings.. And I was very nervous because I was hearing all these stories about people, you know, getting loans and all these things to pay for their divorce. And so I was like, okay, okay, you know, it'll be fine. It wasn't fine. So after I ran out of money, I started getting harassed by the attorney's office, by their accounting department, and they seized everything of mine and they told me they would stop services and all these things if I didn't pay them. And I ran out of money. I literally had nothing left. And so I had to sell my house to pay for my divorce. I had to get a new job because at the time I was working with my sister-in-law and she was making my life miserable at work. And excuse me. And I also got into a really bad car accident with my son and we both ended up in the hospital. My car was totaled and all of this was happening at the same time. And it was also happening at the end of a bankruptcy. And so I literally had nothing left. And so when my divorce was final, I received a check in the mail from my attorney's office for $347. And that was all I had left in the world. And I would have gotten tens of thousands of dollars from the sale of my home, but they took all of it.

Oh, all of it.

It was just gone. And so after I picked up pick myself up off the floor from crying and sobbing and just being in the fetal position, crying. Like, it was, it was awful. It was that— I will never forget that day. It was awful. And I didn't really at that moment change anything about money. You know, I didn't really know what to do. And so I started selling things, and I was just trying to figure it out. I got a new house. I'm renting. I'm still in the same house. I got a new job. I had a great job. I had to go find another great job. So I did. I got a great job. And then I had to get a car. I got the car and I got a 6-year car loan because I wanted to space those payments out for as long as I possibly could and to just do whatever I could to try to make it work. And, and I did, and I did. I was making it work, but I wasn't really getting anywhere and I wasn't paying any attention to my money at all until my aha moment. You know, we all have those aha moments where, you know, that's the day where we make the change, right? Right.

It's like that pivot moment. Yes. Make it or break it. It's like, wait a minute, you just wake up. Sometimes you just wake up from the fog and we say, this isn't working anymore.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

So I was having my annual conversation with my financial advisor, and I do this in air quotes because she was a friend of mine.

Okay.

And air quotes. And we had met at a party years ago, and then I had trusted her. We had become friends and we were hanging out. We had sleepovers. We did all the things., and I gave her the money that I had from the job that I had left, the 401k that I rolled over. My grandmother had passed away and left me some money, and I didn't want to spend it, and I had no idea what to do with it. So I gave it to her, and she was supposed to be investing all of this money for me.

Please do not tell me that this is one of those stories where the financial advisor is like siphoning your money away.

No, she didn't do that, but she didn't really educate me. As to anything with my money. I don't really know what she did.

But situations where she was sort of like she had the guru complex and it was like, trust me, trust me, trust me, I'll do everything for you. And you had no education for yourself.

Yeah, basically it was just give me your money, I'll take care of it for you and so you don't have to worry about it kind of thing. And so that's what I did. I just gave it to her. I never worried about it, never looked at it. I would get a statement in the mail. I wouldn't even look at it, whatever. And then annually we were supposed to get together and talk about the money. And then every year she would say the market was so great this year, blah, blah, blah. But my money really was never growing. And because I was so embarrassed and shameful about money, I never spoke up all those years. I never said anything. I would just say to myself, all right, well, whatever, she's taking care of it, you know, and I would let it go. And then year after year after year— excuse me— year after year after year, my money would not grow. So finally, after all of this, after I had lost everything, and then she did it again— the market was so great this year, it was up all this, you know, million percent or whatever she said, you know. And she would go on and on and on. And I, I had no idea if she was telling me the truth or lying to me because I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. No idea. And so after we hung up You know, because I even said to her, I said, well, if the market was so great, where's my money? Why is my money not growing? I finally said something. Yeah. And then she responded. And I still don't know. I don't know what she said. I have no idea. And so after that conversation, I let her go. I just let her go. And I said, I'm going to figure this out. I'm going to figure this out for myself. And I did. And my mission was not to become a money coach for moms. That was not even in my, in my mind. My, my mission was to help myself and my son because now I was a single mom with a 5-year-old and I didn't know what to do. And all I knew was that I was spending my money and it was going away really fast and I didn't know what to do. And so I just dove in. I just dove in. I first, I went to Google University, you know, like everyone does. You go to Google and Google confused me even more. There was just too much information and I didn't know how to sort through it. Which is what I think most people's problem is, is you go to Google and then you're like, ah, and you just hit the X and you're done, you know? Right, right. And so then I started listening to podcasts, and most of the financial podcasts out there that I was listening to that I found were way over my head, and I didn't understand what they were talking about. So I stopped listening to those, and then I just decided to pick up a book. I just grabbed a book. I went to the store and got a book. And that's what I started doing. I just read book after book after book after book. And I literally have read over 200 books. And those are the only the ones that I've kept track of. I've read way more than that. And I've purchased books, I've got most of them were from the library because, you know, they're free. And everyone, I would read. Our library is amazing. They have the most amazing services. And most people don't even realize I love the library.

Yeah. Like side note, we're going to get back. We're going to get back to your story, but did you know that the library has like an online or like an Audible app where you can listen to books? I have canceled my Audible subscription because I'm obsessed with this app.

Okay. Yeah. You can get any book and listen to it for free. It's amazing. Yeah. You could read the book, the physical book. You could listen to it. They also have eBooks if you really want to read and take it with you. It's amazing. And they have more than just books. It's awesome. So I moved on. So from these books, I started learning, right? So little by little by little, I was learning what to do. And there were some great books and there were some not so great books. And I always say I read the book so you don't have to. I sorted through all the information and then I still wasn't really making a lot of change. And so I created this beautiful spreadsheet that I started putting all my money on and I was tracking everything, but that's all I was doing. I was just putting it on the spreadsheet and every month it would be in the red and I would be spending more than I was bringing in. And I was just watching my money go away. And I was like, but I have this beautiful spreadsheet. I'm tracking my money, you know, but I didn't know what to do with it. Yeah. So I realized this and I was like, you know, I always hear that phrase, pay yourself first, pay yourself. How do we do that? I don't have any money. I had such a great job. And I'm like, why do I have no money? Where's my money? You know, so then I was tracking it. And so I obviously saw where it was going, right? So that was my awareness, right? So that's where it all came to me to say to myself, okay, I need to fix this. Something here needs to change. And I dove into more books, I hired people, I got my own coach, I had all these things. And still to this day, I have the most amazing support team around me. Because that's what you need. You need a support team around you to help you get better, right? So my goal every day, and what I teach my son every day, is we need to be 1% better than we were yesterday, right? And so we're always striving to be better and better and better. And so that's what we started doing. So while I was learning about money, I was teaching my son about money at the same time, and it was amazing. So we are now both empowered with a financial education. And I have set him up so that he is now set for life and he will be a multimillionaire by the time he's my age. And he will never have to worry about money. He can choose to work if he wants to. He can open a business if he wants to. He can get a job if he wants to. It will be up to him. He loves— he wants to save the Earth. So he might be this like crazy volunteer guy or maybe he'll open up his own organization. I don't really know. And he's got this amazing creative and engineering mind and an artistic mind. So I know he's going to do amazing things. And the really cool thing is that he'll have the opportunity to do that and he won't be stuck in a cubicle somewhere saying, my God, I hate my soul-sucking job. And so that's why it's so important because we learn about money and everything basically that we're conditioned to learn is between the ages of 0 and 7. So when we're age 0 and 7, we're taking in everything. All of the messages are coming into our subconscious, and that's where they end up living until we become enlightened and we choose to change, right? Otherwise, we are just these robots who are just following everybody else. And so once you realize that, you learn your money story, you learn everything about money from your parents and from your environment., and then your parents learn about money from their parents, their parents learn about money from their parents, and so on and so on and so on. So there's all these generational patterns that are keep moving forward, that keep getting repeated until someone stops it. So that is now my mission. My mission is to stop those generational patterns now in their tracks, because we do not learn about money in school. We are learning about money from other people's money stories and other people's fears. Absolutely. And it's so interesting because one day my son said to me, he might have said it to me a year or so ago, he's 10 now. And we were in the store and we're always talking about money, obviously, right? We're always talking about it. I normalize money. We're always talking about it. We talk about money like it's the weather, like it's nothing, like it's hot out. It's Atlanta, right? It's hot out. Well, how's your money? You know, let's go spend some money. Let's go save some money, whatever. So we're talking about money while we're in the store. And he said something to me that I found rather odd. And he said, Mommy, people with money are greedy, right? And I looked at him and I said, those words have never left my lips. Where did you hear that? And he told me it was on a cartoon that he was watching.

Wow.

So you see, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. And so whoever wrote the cartoon put his money story in the cartoon and is now projecting it to all the kids, right? And so that's where we hear these things. Money is evil. Money doesn't grow on trees. People with money are greedy or, you know, evil or, you know, whatever.

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm surprised sometimes with the things that my kids say about money also. Like one day my daughter came home and said, Mom, so-and-so— she said the name of a little girl who's in her class— she's like, Mom, so-and-so is rich. I said, what do you mean by that? She's like, she just is rich. I'm like, why do you say that? She's like, I don't know. Cause she said that she's rich. And so then we had this conversation about, well, being rich is subjective and she's 5. So like, and so I was like, what that means is maybe we're rich to some people or maybe she's rich, you know, being rich doesn't really define how much money someone has. And so it was a big conversation, you know, about what, what does rich even mean? And it's so, yeah, I think it's so funny, not funny, but it's just, it astounds me what kids pick up from people around them. Or even like, they'll notice people who like, you know, for like, if we go through a neighborhood and maybe the houses are a little bit older, or, you know, they'll say, Mom, that house is broken, that they need to go to work. And so it's like, to a child, money and wealth. And those things are so black and white to them. And so it's like, okay, well now we have to have the conversation about it may not be because they're not working. They could be working very hard every single day, but there could be other things that are keeping them from fixing their house or other, you know, system, you know, like systemic things are happening. And so it's just like, oh, these really big conversations, but our kids are listening to us.

Everything.

Yeah.

And that's why when you think about the age between 0 and 7, right? So your kids are already programmed, right? So, and you're already programmed, you're way programmed, right? So, and you keep, it's not just the age 0 to 7. That's just when it starts. And that's when everything sticks. And then from there, you just keep absorbing and absorbing and absorbing and you taking it all on without even realizing. And then that's just how you operate. Right? So everyone's projecting on everybody else. And so that's why your kids are— they're saying these things, because that's what they're hearing other people saying. And so they're coming to you for clarification, thankfully, right? So now that you're really aware of, wow, this needs to change, right? And you can have those conversations.

And they just see things. So like this way or that way, and we don't realize how literal their brains are. So another example, the kids wanted Dairy Queen yesterday and like, we know that Dairy Queen Blizzards are like $5 a piece. And that is like, we save that for a very special, like, not to mention they're like 1,000 grams of sugar basically. And they're like $5 a piece. So that's typically something we would do on a Friday afternoon or like on the weekends or something. So the kids wanted to get straight and then like before I even realized it, it came out of my mouth and I said, we don't have the money for that. And it was just like a habit. And I'm like, why would I say that? Like, and so I kind of had to backtrack and I say, we'll do that this week. We'll do that this weekend. Let's go home and we'll go have a snack for today. And so it was like, wait a minute, I can't. It's silly. I think that whenever we try to become aware of these patterns that we have and the way that we say things, like the language that we use, we have to catch ourselves and say, wait a minute, if I said we don't have the money, they're literally gonna think we don't have any money. Mm-hmm, exactly. And it's not that, it's like, that's just not in our budget right now. Like, that's not what we're prioritizing today. We have things at home to eat. And so I think this is really good. So Eileen, how do you, what are your like tips or what, like how would you help moms who are trying to educate their children on money and like being intentional spending even, you know, like we could have bought ice cream if we wanted it, sure. But why would we go spend $12 on ice cream when we could do that this weekend? And we have, you know, it's like, what is your advice on that?

So there's two different things because there's empowering yourself and empowering your kids, right? So, and I'm just going to use the example that you just gave about the ice cream because I do this with my son all the time, is when I was little, my mom always said we don't have the money. I always heard that because she spent it all. My mom was a spender. My dad had a gambling addiction. There was always money going away. They made amazing money, both of them. They brought in great money, but it was never around because they were both getting rid of it. So anytime I wanted something, I would hear no, you know, a different version of no, or we don't have the money, or no, you can't have that, or whatever. And, um, so I have now empowered my son with his own money. Right. So if he wants something, he can buy it himself, and I never have to say no, ever. So if anytime we go anywhere, we bring his wallet, and if you want something, I say, go for it. If you've got the money, go for it. And most of the time, he ends up not buying the thing he really wanted. That's right. Because I've empowered him with the power of choice, right? So now he realizes, well, if It's not free to me. You know, I gotta pay for it. I gotta think about it. And sometimes he buys things and sometimes he doesn't. And recently he took me out for ice cream. Oh, and it was awesome. We went out on an ice cream date and he wanted to pay for me and it came out to like $12. It does. Yeah. And we went to those, one of like those bougie ice cream places that really do it up because, you know, we were going on a date and mommy was choosing where we're going. You're paying for it, kid. Right, because when he wants to go there and I have to pay $12, I wanted him to feel that. I wanted him to understand that. And so we got up to the register and they told him how much it was and he was like, wow, that's expensive. I'm like, yeah, it is. Thanks for paying, you know. And so he learns those lessons now and so he can decide whether or not he wants to do it with his own money. That's awesome. And it's the same thing for yourself, you know, once, once you really start paying attention to your money. And this is something that I start teaching you. So we work both on mindset as well as setting up a plan for success. So we— I— what I teach is the 4 buckets, and I, I really make it so simple. So I teach money to my moms the same way that I teach money to my son. So I make it so easy and so fun, and it's not confusing because there's so much confusion out there, right? So I have cut through all the confusion and I've just completely simplified it.

It's so simple.

So we look at your money, we see what's coming in, we see what's going out, we see what we need to change it, and the 4 buckets, right? So the 4 buckets are simply saving, okay, investing, giving, spending. Easy.

That's it. Saving, investing, giving, spending. Okay.

Yes. So we allocate your money to those 4 buckets and then we go from there, right? So, and I do the same thing with my son. So when I give my son his allowance every week, his payday is every Thursday, so I give him his money every Thursday and then we sit down and we have a money date and we talk about his money. And I have an app that shows all of his money, and we allocate his money to those 4 buckets in the app. I love it. And so right now he's saving money for a car. He's going to buy his own car. He started saving years ago, and he's now got thousands of dollars in cash and investments saved. And he only puts away a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. And you can see the power of putting a little bit away every single week or every month or whatever, however you choose to do so. And it really adds up. So the younger you are, the better, obviously. And the older that you are, you need to catch up, right? That was me. I lost everything. I was over 40. I had nothing, right? So what do you do, right? So the younger you are, you could put away these tiny amounts. The older you are, you have to put more away. At a time, which is fine. You just know how to— you just need to know how to do it and what your targets are. And that's where I come in and help you do that. So what I do is you get your paycheck, and then what, right? So most people think you get paid, you pay your bills, okay, and then you figure out what to do with the rest. Wrong.

At that point, it's probably like a free-for-all, and you're gonna go to TJ Maxx, or you're gonna go eat out 3 times over the weekend.

Yes. Right. So generally what happens is you get your paycheck, you pay your bills, and then you have this tiny little bit left over. And then you hope that you have enough for groceries and gas for your car and maybe a fun night out or TJ Maxx or, you know, decorative pillows or whatever. So then there ends up being more month at the end of the money, right? That's when people start using their credit cards to finish out the month. Right. So that's why people are very slowly getting into debt. It's just very slow because you have the money and then you don't, and you put a little bit at a time every month. So then all of a sudden you're thousands of dollars in debt and you say to yourself, how did I get here? Yeah, yeah, right. And so we're gonna undo all of that, right? We just totally redo the entire plan. So instead of paying your bills first, you pay yourself first. And I teach you how to do that because you know why? I figured it out, right? So you figure it out. So that's how I was able to get a fully funded emergency fund. I have— they say 3 to 6 months. I have a year, right? That's a good year. I saved, boom, done, right? And teach— I teach you how to save cash, how to invest all in yourself before you pay your bills. Wow. And you worry about the bills. Everything else is paid. You have paid yourself, and then you pay the bills. Yeah, right. You get to tell your money what to do. That's what I tell people all the time. Your personal finance is personal. Everyone's situation is different. No one makes the same. No one spends the same. No one has the same lifestyle. No one has anything the same. And yet we all try to keep up with the Joneses. Yeah. And we're all comparing ourselves to everybody else. Well, that person's got that and I want it too. But can you really afford that? Can they really afford that? Most people can't. That's right. Yeah. And so we're all just jealous of everybody. And our reality is our phones, right? Everyone's stuck in our phones, right? And your reality is what you're looking at all day, which is most of the time your phone, right? So you're looking at all these people that are just, my husband did this for me, and oh, we're going on this amazing vacation. Do you love my new shoes? Look at these beautiful pillows that I just got at Target and blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and that's all you see. And you never see, my son just had a tantrum and it was awful and I wanted to, you know, just run in the closet and lock myself in there. You know, no one posts stuff like that, right? Yeah, you know, I mean, you don't see the bad stuff. You only see the fake, embellished, and very filtered things, right? Especially with all the filters on Instagram and all the things, like, you don't even know what people really look like anymore, right? Yeah, it's crazy.

We don't even— we're gonna look back on pictures of our kids, and I actually try not to take pictures of my kids with filters. We're gonna look back at these, like, these filters on them, and that's not even going to be how they look, right?

Or the things with the puppy ears and the tongue hanging out.

Those are like okay, but I mean like where they like make their face really smooth and like bigger lips, and it's like, that's not even what our children look like.

Exactly.

So anyways, exactly.

Again, but that's what I see all day long when I look at things that, you know, I'm following people and I just look at them and I'm— I just look at it and I just keep going, you know. I don't even care, you know. And so I tell people all the time is take a break, take a break from social media, go through your social media and block people or just take a break. There's a thing on Facebook, you could actually take a break from someone, you know, don't look at their feed for a little while, or you could just change everything, delete the things about the hate in the world and all the things and bring in the things that make you feel good about yourself, you know. Because everyone's just feeling less than and they just go out and do retail therapy and then they're in all this debt. Exactly. Exactly.

This is so true. Okay, so I want to talk about the 4 buckets and I want to talk about the practicality behind— okay, so we're going to save, we're going to invest, we're going to give, and then we're going to spend, right? So where do your bills fit into that? So like in the spend bucket.

Okay.

Because you're saving, you're investing, okay, giving, and then you're spending. That includes all of your monthly bills. Okay, I got you. So I like what you said about pay yourself first because I actually thought in the business I followed the profit first. I, I want to do my version of the profit first. And so it's like always profit first and then you're going to pay yourself immediately and then we're going to make the expenses work around that first and foremost. And I truly do account like being able to grow my business in such a short amount of time to that system. Because had I not been paying myself, or had I— if I don't pay myself, I am the asset to the company. So I think it's absolutely— I don't know why. It's the same thing in our personal lives. It's like, you are the thing that has to survive to get, to get to work every day, to feed yourself every day. So why are we putting that last on the list of buying the groceries and getting the gas? It's like, we're the asset that makes all this stuff possible, so we take care of ourselves first.

Conditioned to do that. We've been conditioned to pay the bills first. Absolutely.

So, Ali, do you recommend like a certain budgeting app? Are there certain tools or like budgeting systems? Like, I have recently tried the YNAB, like You Need a Budget app. I've tried that. I have tried like the envelope system. I've tried like Intuitive Budget, all these different things. Is there a certain, um practical budget that works for you beyond the 4 buckets that would specifically help within that spending bucket?

So like I said, personal finance is personal, right?

Right.

So everyone likes a different way to do it. Yeah. So when I work with my moms, because I do both, I teach moms personal finance and I also teach them business finance, right? Because I work a lot with mompreneurs and I'm a mompreneur, right? So I had to learn that as well. I had to learn the difference between personal as well as business, and it's very different. It's very similar, but it's very different, right? So if you don't know how to manage your personal finances, your business is going to run into the ground because you're just going to run it to the ground because you're not going to understand how to manage your personal finances either. And I mean your business finances. So I do introduce everything to my clients. And I say, look, you could do this, you could do this, you could do this. So let's figure out what works for you because there is no one way to do it. And if the one way that you're doing it and you hate it— like, for example, if I say, here, use the spreadsheet, and you hate spreadsheets, you are just not gonna do it. Yeah, you're not gonna do it, you know. So I say, look, there's all these things out here And let's figure out what lights you up, what makes you excited about doing your money, because it should be exciting. It should be fun. It shouldn't be this chore that you have to do and hate. Yeah. You know, because if your money's not fun and you're not having fun, right? Even just in your life, like everything should be fun. Life is— life should be lived. Life should be fun. And most people are not living that way. Most people have their head in the sand, ignoring everything, going to work every day. Yeah, on the hamster wheel, you know, just running on the hamster wheel and just barely surviving, trying to keep up with the Joneses. And this is what people are doing, and it's really sad. So we find a way to make it fun. So yes, all those things you mentioned, they all work. But if it's not something that's lighting you up, or if— because I tried YNAB years ago and I couldn't get it. I, it was very confusing to me. I'm like overwhelming.

I'm at that point to where I'm about to give up, but I've got to find something else though, because I really just want to feel really good about it, you know? And I want to feel good about tracking things and just feel on top of it, you know? Um, I feel, I feel like that brings freedom. So yeah, YNAB, I don't know, it's good. I like the 4 principles.

Principles of it.

Like, I like the idea behind it. Like, every dollar has a job, and you're only looking at what you have right now. And like, I like all those principles and like to be flexible and like, you know, it's kind of like a, like an elevated envelope system. I really like that. But I, I've almost been tempted to just put some envelopes in my purse and just like literally, literally— so do that. I know, I feel like, um, I just want simple. I just want simplicity, and that's it. So anyways, I'm just— I was curious on what you would recommend, you know.

Yeah, I would recommend trying everything and just seeing what works for you. And you don't have to go with just one method. You can use more than one. Yeah, you can blend that. You can create your own thing. Yeah, because if you really like— some people really like using the envelope system for just some things.

Yeah, maybe just groceries. Like your coffee, you know, yeah, I'm gonna buy coffee every month. I just am. I put it in the budget and then I'm gonna say, okay, this is what you have.

Yay. Yeah. And then when the envelope's empty, you're done. You're not putting it on the credit card.

That is it. That's it.

That's okay.

Yeah.

And so, and then while you're paying attention to your money, you figure out how much you need per month to do what you want to do. Right. And are you bringing in enough? And if you're not, go get more. And that's another thing I teach too, is how to go get more.

That's right. You gotta spend less or you gotta make more.

That's your options. Yes. And I, I recommend doing both.

That's right.

Same.

Oh, I love this. This is so good. I mean, okay, so if you could send our listeners with one tip to get started, if you could send them in the right direction, what would you say to them?

Awareness. Ooh, awareness. Take your head out of the sand and pay attention. Yeah. What I recommend everyone to do first is to just look. Just look at your money because you're ignoring it right now. No one is looking at their money. Money has become air, right? It's on this little plastic card and you're just swiping and swiping and swiping. And, or you have it on your phone, add to cart, right? Not paying any attention. You're just spending, not paying attention. You get your credit card bill in the mail or whatever, in your email, right? And, or you're in your app right? Because it's all air now. So you get the bill and then you're like, whatever, I'll just pay. And you're not even looking at the bill, right? So what I recommend to people when you first start is just become aware. Go look at your bank account, look at what's coming in, what is going out. Look at your credit card statements. What are you spending your money on? How much interest are you paying? Because the interest payment sometimes is actually more than what you're actually paying for the month, the month, monthly payment. Yeah, that's true, depending upon how much debt you have on that card. I mean, you don't know unless you look at it. That's right, right. And then I actually found something when I started to actually pay attention to my money back when, when I first started 5 years ago, I found something where I had signed up for— AT&T at the time was doing wireless streaming, like their own kind of DirecTV kind of thing for TV. And so I had AT&T internet, I was like, and they offered that to me. Okay, great. I'll sign up for it. So I signed up for it. And then I called them up because they were having some kind of a deal where I could get a discount for like 6 months. So I called them up and wanted the deal. And they said to me, well, we'll have to cancel your old account and create a new account for you to get that deal. I said, okay, whatever you got to do, just do it. But I wasn't paying attention. They never canceled my old account. They were double charging me every single month as if I had two separate accounts. And I never, ever, ever checked it. And then one day I checked it. And I was— I said to myself, oh my goodness, what is going on?

I can't believe— how long has this been going on?

Yeah. And so now I had to fight with them to get my money back. And couldn't talk to a real person on the phone. Oh my goodness, it took me 6 months, 6 months to get my money back. Wow. And so these are things like you just really need to pay attention. Just go look.

Just, yeah, pull it up, pull up the credit card statement. It's scary and you're gonna look back at it. Oh my goodness, why did I go to the Dollar General?

How many times did you pay for those shoes? You know, with all the interest you're paying, all the things.

Right, that's right. This is good.

Thank you, Eileen.

Thank you. So we need to become aware, we need to start thinking about those 4 buckets and really educating our children and educating them and talking to them and normalizing these conversations about money. This is so good. Yes. Thank you so much, Eileen. Where can you send our listeners to, you know, learn further from you or to continue their education journey around their finances?

Well, I work one-on-one with my clients, and so I do have a couple of spots open. My schedule fills up crazy fast, so if you want to get on my calendar, get on now. You can do that on my website. Okay, my website is momshomoney.com. So cute. Yes, you can find me anywhere, everywhere from my website. I'm on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. And on Facebook and Instagram, I am @EileenJoyMoneyCoach. And on LinkedIn, I'm Eileen Joy Moms Who Money. And I also have a great podcast called Moms Who Money, where I teach money concepts. I make short episodes for busy moms. I even interviewed my son. So we have an episode with my son. And I talk a lot about mom life and money, spirituality, and everything money mindset and just all of it. I encompass everything.

That's so much fun.

That sounds so cool.

I'm gonna have to go listen to that between you and your son. I should bring the kids on the podcast one day.

I'd be afraid and say, hey, you can edit it out.

Oh, you told on me. Oh, turn that out. No, that, that's awesome though. I love that you're involving him in your work that you do.

That's great. He's my best friend.

He does everything. Oh, that's so sweet. All right, Eileen, well, thank you so much for coming on. I have enjoyed this conversation. You have inspired me to pull open my bank statements today and dive straight in and to probably edit this YNAB system because I don't think it's working. Whenever you said that, you said, yeah, you're not going to do it. It's going to feel like a chore. It shouldn't feel like a chore. And I think that, like I said, the idea behind it is great, but it does feel like a chore to open up the app and it's confusing. And it's a lot. So I'm going to look at that system as well.

So thank you for that encouragement. You're so welcome. Thank you. This was so much fun.

Good. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. Yeah, I like these to be light and easy and just fun for us. We're the one that has to stay here and talk to each other. So let's have fun in the process. All right, Eileen, we will put all of our links in the show notes for everyone listening. You can go and connect with Eileen. You can go and listen to the Moms Who Money podcast, and we look forward to hearing more from you, Eileen, and to seeing your content out on the interweb. So thank you for coming on.

Thank you. So thank you.

And we will see you all in the next episode of the Aligned and Wealthy Podcast. Hey gang, it's Lindsey. If you enjoyed today's show, it would mean so much for you to take 1 to 2 minutes and leave us a review right here on your podcast platform. You can click directly on the link to our podcast page, scroll to where it says reviews, and leave us a 1 to 5 star review, 5-star preferably. To really be the gold star student, you can share with us what episode or what episodes you've enjoyed most and what you'd want to hear more of. I personally read every single review, and I would love to be able to share your review on one of our next episodes. So thank you so much for listening, and I will see you in the next episode.